Embers

Ember: A lighted coal, smoldering amid ashes. Passion, especially between two people in love, is much the same... It lingers, just under the surface, ready to flare back to life with only the simplest of touches. Like fire, it is elusive and unpredictable. Sometimes it smolders for days, erupting into flames without warning, and sometimes it is fed deliberately and carefully tended, crafted to remain a single steady flame or turned loose to rage out of control and consume everything in its path. It is wild and heady, a thing of beauty... and danger. And like fire, it never ignites the same way twice.

~ * ~

"Come on, Logan. I want to."

"Marie, darlin', you have the flu."

Not quite true-she was just getting over the flu. She wasn't achy or symptomatic any longer, but she was still sleeping all the time and hardly eating or drinking anything except hot mugs of lemon flavored Thera-flu. In fact, she'd had one an hour ago, just before she'd showered. The shower had pretty much sapped all her energy, but the drugs had kicked in and she was feeling pretty good. Hazy and floaty, but good nonetheless. Her body felt relaxed and heavy, but she was lightheaded, pleasantly dizzy, and more than a little turned on.

"It's been eleven days, sugar." Marie dropped her towel and crawled over to where Logan was reclining against their headboard, watching the Flames take a beating. He bit back a smile. She smelled like lemons. And medicine. And sexy, naked woman.

Plucking the remote from his fingers, Marie clicked off the sound and tossed it aside. Without a shred of modesty or self-consciousness, she slid sensuously up his body and curled herself against his side, humming with pleasure at the feel of his warm, hard chest under her cheek. He was naked under the thin sheet separating them and she could feel the tension in the thick muscles bunched under it.

Her head might have been spinning, but her hand found the bulge at his groin easily enough. She stroked him with her palm, leisurely and without embarrassment. "Eleven days," she repeated emphatically. "I know you have to be tired of taking care of yourself by now." She brought his left hand to her mouth and kissed it softly. The gesture wasn't lost on him. Marie knew which hand he used.

"I'm doin' just fine." It sounded defensive, even to his own ears. "I ain't some kinda animal that hasta have it all the fuckin' time, Marie." His cheeks were a little flushed, both with anger and arousal.

"I didn't think you were-"

He'd been on edge lately, and his moods were mercurial. He cut her off, grinning. "It ain't that I don't wanna, baby. Hell, it feels like I been walkin' around with a fuckin' baseball bat between my legs the last few days," he paused, "but I can wait 'till you're better."

She slid her hand under the sheet and rubbed him a little more firmly. He seemed unaware of the fact that he was pushing his hips up at her even as he was telling her he could wait. She swallowed a smile. "Well, maybe you can wait, sugar, but I sure as hell can't," she shot back teasingly.

His eyes widened and then narrowed as another thought occurred to him. "I don't wantcha to feel like you hafta... I dunno, service me or some shit." He stroked her hair gently to take some of the sting out of his words. "I'm not a car." The corner of his mouth turned up in amusement.

Marie knew he was trying to keep things light, but she had other ideas. Her eyes twinkled as she uncovered him, grasped his erection firmly and pointed it straight up at the ceiling like a gearshift. "Vroom, vroom." She giggled and put her head back down on his chest. The room was spinning.

"Cute," he chuckled, "but remindin' me that lemon shit you drank has ya higher than a fuckin' kite ain't exactly helpin' your cause any, darlin'." He sucked in a deep, shuddering breath as she abandoned her playful touch and let her fingertips linger on that ultra sensitive spot just under the head before swirling them over the tip to spread the moisture she'd coaxed from him.

Resting her chin on his chest, she met his heavy-lidded gaze. "I don't think there's anything wrong with us 'servicing' each other, sugar, and even if I did, this isn't 'servicing'." She sighed gently. "I want to be with you, Logan. I want to feel you inside me. I miss the closeness." Her voice had gone all soft and husky. "I miss you."

There was no doubt in his mind whether he'd be making love to her after that heartfelt admission. Logan pulled her up to him and kissed her so tenderly it took her breath away. He didn't quite know what to say. Her unexpected words touched him deeply and made his chest feel all warm and tight-in a way that was a little scary, but at the same time, incredibly good. He finally settled for a simple, "I love ya, kid."

She touched the warm skin over his heart with one small hand. "I love you too."

Marie smiled up into his face as he pulled the covers up over them both and then rolled her underneath him. His eyes never left hers as he gathered her wetness with his fingers and slicked himself before slowly beginning to push inside. They both groaned as the head crowned inside her. She was incredibly tight and he was beyond engorged. It had been a long time since he had been this hard. It had just been too long. Period.

Her fingers momentarily gripped the heavy muscles of his arms and then slowly relaxed as her body began to open to him. "Oh, God..." Her eyes fluttered shut.

"That's it, darlin'. That's it. Let me in... Good girl." She gasped at the exquisite pressure of his invasion and he felt his belly tighten in response to her wordless compliment. "Just a little more, baby." It was a tight fit, but he knew she could take all of him.

His jaw tightened as he forced his body to go slow, to give hers time to adjust to his size. It took a few thrusts to fully seat himself. Logan shuddered and dropped his forehead to her shoulder. "Goddamn, you feel good." She was so slick and hot and tight-he knew he wouldn't last long. He grit his teeth against the desire to simply let go and fuck himself blind.

Logan groaned when she purposefully clenched around him, feeding his restless hunger. He pulled her leg up higher on his hip to open her up a little more and started a slow, deep rhythm. "Unnnngh... Fuck!" He felt like he was turning inside out. Each steady, inward push forced a grunt of pleasure from him when he was fully buried, but it was the slow grasping drag of slick satiny flesh against over-sensitized skin as he withdrew that made white spots dance before his eyes. And all the while, her hands never stopped stroking him-his throat, his arms, his back.

Marie sighed languidly in contentment and Logan's jaw clenched. Her breathing told him she wasn't even close and he was only a few strokes away from orgasm. The instinct to keep going was strong, but he squeezed his eyes shut and forced his hips to still.

"Logan?"

"Fuck..." It was half curse, half groan. "Gimme a minute, baby," he panted against her throat. "Close. I'm too close."

Marie smiled. Her body felt full where they were so intimately joined and his weight felt so good, so solid above her. She'd wanted to feel him like this tonight because she missed their intimacy, not because her body needed a physical release. She was too tired and her mind was too hazy, too disjointed and distanced from her body to be craving release the way Logan was. She'd gotten what she needed, the closeness, the feeling of shared intimacy with the man she loved and now it was time for him to get what he needed.

"Don't worry about me, sugar." She touched the rigid planes of his back. "I'm too tired to come." His eyes snapped open and flew to hers. "I want it to be good for you though." She rocked her hips up at him. "I want to hold you and feel you come, Logan. That's what I want. That's what I need." She rocked harder, encouraging him to move.

"Marie-"

"C'mon, sugar. Come in me," she crooned.

Logan lost the battle with himself, and his body. In truth, it really wasn't that much of one to begin with. He was too close and she felt too good. He buried his face in her throat and started moving again, thrusting fast and deep. Marie recognized the rhythm. It was the one that got him off the best. Soon it would become erratic as his body took over and he lost himself to that carnal, primal instinct to plant his seed as deep as possible inside his woman's body.

His arrhythmic thrusts reached a fevered pitch and then he slowed and shuddered against her. For a handful of heartbeats he froze, eyes squeezed shut and tendons straining as his body tightened in advance of his release. His breath escaped his throat in a harsh exclamation of pleasure as it coursed through him. He surged forward one last time and came, hard, in long sustained pulses that left him gasping hotly against her throat.

With the last of his energy, he rolled them so she was on top and cradled her against his wide, heaving chest. Neither of them needed any words. She fell asleep before he'd even softened enough to slip from her body. Slowly, his breathing evened out and in the flickering light of the TV, he held the woman he loved close to his heart and watched over her as she slept.

~ * ~

Logan turned his head just enough to catch Marie's eye. His expression didn't change but his eyes glittered mischievously. He'd been good long enough. These benefit dinners Xavier required the staff to attend wore on him. Well, seeing Marie all decked out was certainly no hardship. He didn't even mind the penguin suit. Marie'd barely been able to take her eyes - and hands - off him since he'd put it on. It was the interminable time spent stuck making small talk at the table that tried his patience, especially with the scent of his woman's arousal filling his head.

As coolly as if he was asking about the weather, Logan leaned in close, put his lips to Marie's ear and told her he couldn't wait to get her back upstairs, that he wanted to see her pretty red lips wrapped around his dick. Color suffused her cheeks and he quickly, sensuously licked her neck with the flat of his tongue and then whispered to her that he'd rather be licking something else.

Wet heat blossomed between her legs and she shifted uncomfortably in her chair. It was the last straw for Logan. With a wicked grin, he leaned in again and whispered one last thing. "Marie, darlin'? I think it's time you excused yourself. You're lookin' a little flushed." His eyes blazed hazel fire at her and he chuckled huskily. "I'll be up in ten." He stroked the small of her back with his knuckles and smiled as she shivered in anticipation. "And I wantcha naked when I get there."

Fire danced in her eyes and then it was her lips that found his ear. "Naked and on my knees for you, sugar. Don't keep me waiting too long." And with a sinful smile, she was gone.

~ * ~

"No! Logan... Oh please, no! Stop!" Marie shrieked and panted with laughter as she tried, futilely, to twist away from his insistent, tickling fingers.

"Heh. Make me." Hazel eyes glittered with amusement. His fingertips teased over her ribs, brushing again and again over her sensitive flesh. God, he loved being naked with her. He also loved the way the ring he'd recently given her sparkled with red fire as it moved in and out of the dappled sunlight that fell across their big bed.

Tears of mirth sparkled in her lashes. "No! No more!" She bucked hard under him and tried to grab his wrists, still giggling and squirming all over their bed in the late afternoon sun.

He easily avoided her clumsy attempts to capture his wayward hands. "I dunno, darlin'. You look pretty cute. Chest heavin', good bits..." he eyed her breasts hungrily, '...bouncin'."

"Logan!" Marie wiggled beneath him in mock outrage. "Get off!"

A naughty smile turned up one corner of his sensual mouth. "Be more fun to get you off, kid." His low, dirty laugh rasped against her skin and sent shivers of want racing down her spine.

Still not quite ready to give in, Marie twisted and heaved under him. They both groaned as the blunt tip of his erection slid through her slick folds. Logan's eyebrow lifted in surprise when instead of conceding defeat and resuming their impromptu bout of afternoon lovemaking, Marie began to fight him in earnest. Something dark and wild flared to life in her eyes, waking something equally wild in him. It rose quickly and his touch became rougher, more forceful, as he responded to her wordless request.

"This whatcha wanted?" He growled the words in her ear and pinned her hands as he forced her legs apart and buried himself solidly with one deep thrust. She gasped, but didn't stop fighting him. Scorching wet heat enveloped him and he grunted out his pleasure to her. His body was screaming at him to move, but he had no leverage-not holding her the way he was. If she wanted it a little rough, he was more than happy to oblige, he just needed to get a better grip on her.

Logan shifted, relinquishing her hands, and quickly rested his heavy forearm over her throat before she could stop him. It wasn't enough to cut off her air, but he put enough force behind it to keep her pinned flat while he worked her. He wasn't too sure how a bit of playful teasing could descend into this base coupling so quickly, but like her, he found himself swept along by the fierce intensity of their passion.

Her fingers slid into his hair and her nails pricked his scalp. In answer, he buried his free hand in the dark tangle of her hair and wrapped its heavy length around his fist, pulling hard as they fought themselves and each other for their pleasure.

A fierce light flickered in her eyes. "Harder."

It spurred something equally primal in him. His hand tightened in her hair and he put more pressure on her throat. Still not enough to scare her or make her feel like she wasn't getting enough air, but certainly enough to make her breath come in raspy pants and make her blood pound loudly in her ears each time he slammed himself home.

Marie twisted under him violently. "Go harder!" Her back arched sharply, trying to drive him deeper. Slick with sweat and wet with each other, their bodies slid agonizingly together as they both fought for purchase. "Ungh... Yesss... Fuck me!"

She was already wincing with each forceful stroke, but he was helpless to deny her demand, and those of his own body as well. Logan growled low in his throat and increased the depth and power of his thrusts. The velvety friction was so intense it made his eyes water. "Take it." He all but snarled the words at her through clenched teeth. "You fuckin' take it, Marie!" They were both wincing now but they were beyond caring. Pleasure and pain blurred into ecstasy.

Head thrown back, Marie panted against Logan's throat. "Yes! More-" She gasped as he rocked into her with a particularly forceful thrust. Unconsciously sensing the shift in her lover, her voice changed from demanding to pleading. "Close. I'm so close, sugar. Please, make me come. Please, sugar. Please..." Her breath hitched. "Pleasepleasepleaseplease..." It fell from her lips like his own personal benediction.

"God..." He struggled to hold back, but the sound of her begging for it shredded the last of his control. He lasted two, maybe three more strokes. "Unnnnghhh!" Blind to everything but his own orgasm, he instinctively pushed himself as deep as possible and held himself there as his body pulsed rhythmically with release. "Unngh, fuck... fuck... fuck!" Eyes squeezed tightly shut, he could only bury his face in her throat and ride it out, cursing huskily with each wet rush of pleasure.

Marie whimpered in desperation when he stopped moving. She could feel him pulsing inside her. His sudden stillness made her acutely aware of just how sore she was, but the small break in his rhythm only heightened her pleasure. The sound of him, the feel of him coming, combined with her anticipation and the sensory input from her over-sensitized flesh wound her tighter until she was mindless with want. She was hyperaware of how close she was to the edge, and how little she needed to push her over.

As if he could read her mind, he lifted his head to meet her eyes. He wanted to watch her come. Still shuddering, he pressed hard enough on her throat that she saw stars, and with a growl, he thrust forward sharply, grinding against her roughly. As sensitive as he was in the moments directly following his own release, the friction was agonizing, but her pleasure spiked, as he knew it would. Her body clenched around him tightly, rhythmically, and her nails raked his back as she found her own release.

"Oh, God! Logannnn..." Her words became a groan of intense pleasure as she splintered apart beneath him. She knotted her fists at the small of his back to hold him to her as she rolled her hips against his and shamelessly used his big body to pleasure hers. His voice joined hers as they rode out the last of it together.

Spent, they collapsed into a sweaty, tangled heap, sighing with blissful satisfaction. Marie licked his throat, wanting to have as many of her senses as possible filled with him. He tasted of salty spent passion and faintly of her perfume. Her eyes were closed, but she could tell he was smiling.

"You okay, kid?" He knew he hadn't been gentle. She hadn't wanted him to, but still, he couldn't help but worry a little. Logan untangled his fist from her hair and kissed her gently.

"Mmm-hmm." When he started to withdraw, Marie opened her eyes and tightened her hold on him. "Go slow, sugar." She didn't want to lose him from her body so quickly.

Still watching her flushed, beautiful face, Logan's eyes softened. "Sore?" He saw the start of amusement in her eyes and realized that wasn't why she'd wanted him to go slow. He smiled, pleased by his woman's reluctance to part from him.

"A little sore." She winced as he slowly uncoupled from her. "Okay, more than a little." Marie smiled and blushed into his neck. It was nothing new. He liked making her sore, and honestly, it was one of the things she liked the best about his lovemaking. He didn't treat her like spun glass. He gave her the full measure of his passion and expected the same of her. When it was rough, as it had been this time, the ache enhanced both their physical pleasure and the emotional intimacy that followed.

She winced again as he shifted them so he could snuggle up against her back. "Sorry." His tone was an odd blend of remorse and pure masculine satisfaction.

Marie smiled sleepily into the pillow. "No you're not." She could feel his soft snort of amusement against the back of her neck. "And that's just the way we like it."

"Damn straight." He chuckled as he nestled his soft, wet length against her buttocks and rocked the fit snug. "Nap or shower, darlin'?" He licked her shoulder blade and then kissed it softly.


"I vote nap." She liked falling asleep with his scent drying on her skin.

"Heh. Good choice." He picked the quilt up from the floor and pulled it over their cooling flesh before burying his face in her hair. Still holding hands and lulled by each other's heartbeats, they exchanged a few more soft words and slowly drifted off to sleep.

~ * ~


Marie wasn't sure if it was the storm howling outside their cabin or Logan's heavy body sleepily pressing into hers that had woken her. His hips were rocking slowly and his erection was poking the smooth curve of her backside. With a low groan, he easily rolled her onto her stomach and mounted her. When he spoke, his voice was rough with sleep and arousal. "Let me, darlin'. Let me have ya like this." He had already slipped the head inside her and was starting to push. "Let me," he repeated, half asleep, half lost in some primal place only found in the twilight between slumber and wakefulness.

Marie knew he would never ask to use her body like this, solely for his own pleasure, if he was fully aware of what he was saying. Smiling at the sheer need in his voice, she groaned her consent into the pillow, and shifted her legs apart to admit him. He grunted as he thrust deep and bit the back of her neck as he began to move. Both their bodies smelled strongly of the musky scent of sex and her thighs were sticky with the residue of their earlier lovemaking, but their ripe scents only served to inflame the beast rising within him.

What Marie really wanted was a few more hours sleep followed by a long, hot shower, but she loved that she could give him this, and that he trusted her enough to be able to take what she offered without reservation. She also knew they'd do it again later and that next time, he would focus on her pleasure. Even though she'd intended this time to be just for him, the feel of him possessing her so completely made her tingle and throb in response. She slid a hand under her body and rubbed herself in time to his thrusts until they both came, panting and gasping as they collapsed in a sweaty, satisfied heap.

~ * ~


"Hey, darlin," Logan looked up from where he was eating the dry Cheerios out of the bowl his young son had left on the coffee table and smiled at his wife. He glanced behind the couch to where their child had fallen asleep in the middle of playing the toddler version of hide-and-seek. He was out like a light, asleep on the carpet with his bottom in the air and his arm around the neck of his favorite stuffed animal-Scooter, the chicken. It was, to Logan's way of thinking, a gift that kept on giving. His guilty smile grew bigger and he wiggled his eyebrows at Marie in invitation as he patted the cushion beside him. "Baby's sleepin'..."


"Uh-huh," she smiled back and gave a little shimmy, showing off the figure she'd worked so hard to get back. "And you're on babysitting duty, sunshine. I've got a date with Jubes in-" she checked her watch, "-fourteen minutes." She jingled her keys softly and giggled when he pulled her down into his lap and gave her bottom a light spank.

"Heh. Tease." Logan left his hand on her backside, rubbing lazily and he pressed a soft kiss just above her heart before he lifted his head to nip playfully at her neck.

Marie sucked in a deep breath when he slid his hands up under her skirt and cupped her bottom firmly in his warm palms. Her giggling got louder as he leaned in to kiss her. "You smell like Cheerios, sugar." It was an incredibly un-Wolverine like scent. Tobacco? Yes. Beer? Yes. Leather? Yes. Cheerios? No. Not so much. Marie bit her lip to hold in the laughter.

Logan growled playfully and pinched her bottom, hard, chuckling into her hair as he stole his kiss and then nuzzled her neck. "And you smell like baby powder," he paused and pulled back to meet her gaze, "and me."

The fire in Logan's eyes kicked up a notch. They'd been fooling around earlier and she'd asked him to show off for her. His blood heated at the memory. Blissfully free of inhibitions, he'd straddled her hips and knelt above her as he stroked himself to an intense orgasm, watching with heavy lidded eyes as his come splattered on her belly. God, he loved how free she was with him. However, holding her against him now, he was a little surprised she still smelled faintly of his most intimate scent.

His eyebrow rose. "No shower?" He growled the words low and deep. She knew damn well what smelling that particular scent on her skin did to him.

Marie shook her head. "No time." The baby's crying had ended their morning loveplay abruptly and like most young mothers, once her child was awake, her time was no longer her own. "Besides, you know I love smelling like you." She blushed as she said it, but didn't look away.

His eyes flashed wickedly and his fingers teased along the edge of her panties. "You know, I still owe ya one for this mornin'." Their son's untimely interruption had robbed him of his chance to make sure she found the same release he had.

"Logan-"

"Shhh..." he grabbed her wrist and turned it so he could look at her watch. "We still have eleven minutes." He flashed her a predatory smile. It was all the warning she got.

Marie squeaked in surprise as he flipped her onto her back so fast she bounced against the thick couch cushions and he quickly pinned her under him before she could even manage a coherent protest. His hands were back under her skirt a second later, stripping her pretty lace panties down her smooth legs. He balled them up in his large fist, held them to his face and breathed in her scent, never once taking his eyes from hers.

"Damn, you smell good, baby."

With a wicked leer, he unapologetically tucked them in the back pocket of his jeans. "I'm keepin' these," he growled. With a quick glance over the back of the couch to make sure his son was still sleeping soundly in the scant foot of space between the back of the couch and the wall, Logan slid down Marie's body a little further and nipped the inside of her left knee as he pushed her skirt up. His breath was warm against her and she shivered as he stimulated her sensitive skin with his rough whiskers. "Open for me, darlin," he whispered against the inside of her right knee, teasing her with wet swirls of his tongue.

He made a masculine noise of approval deep in his throat as she spread her legs for him. Her scent enveloped him and his mouth watered as he caught her behind the knees and opened her wider, looking his fill. God, she was beautiful, so sweet and pink and soft.

"Logan, please..." She whispered softly, shifting restlessly under him. She gasped when she felt his breath stir the curls guarding her most intimate flesh.

Knowing he had only a few minutes, Logan wasted no time. Still holding her eyes, he wet two thick fingers in his mouth and slowly slipped them inside her as his lips descended. But he didn't give her what she wanted. Not at first. She always came harder, faster, if he made her work for it a little. He stroked her with his fingers, purposefully keeping the steady rhythm just a little too slow and the wet flicks of his tongue just a shade too light. She heaved under him and he used his free hand to put pressure on her belly to keep her still when she wanted to move.

Breathing hard, Marie bit her bottom lip to keep from crying out. Her hands fisted in her skirt and then unclenched only to fist again, this time in his hair, as she unconsciously guided him to increase her pleasure. He growled against her flesh and lifted his head momentarily, smiling at the way her hips chased his mouth. "So good, baby. Ya taste so fuckin' good." Her head thrashed back and forth and her breath came in ragged pants. "That's it, darlin'. That's it. C'mon. I wanna feel ya come on my fingers." He growled the last of his words against her center and covered her with his mouth, finally giving her what she so desperately craved.

He felt her swell against his tongue and he suckled hard as she began to shake under him. Another hard, deep thrust with his fingers followed by a firm suck and she was there. Marie stiffened and shuddered hard as she rode his mouth and fingers to an intense orgasm, keening low and deep in her throat. No words—just a low, breathless sound of unbearable pleasure.

Logan continued to lap at her as she came down, unable to resist the intoxicating taste of her. He loved pleasuring her this way, but in a different way than he did when they made love. This way, he was detached enough to pay attention to the most minute details as she lost herself to the ecstasy his touch ignited in her. When he was deep inside her, feeling the same intense feelings she was, he was too consumed by how good she felt around him to notice much of anything else.

Her fingers slipped from his hair and he lifted his head to look up at her from between her legs. She was flushed and smiling. And she looked very young. He withdrew his fingers from her slowly and caressed her belly and hips with both hands as he dropped a tender kiss to the inside of her thigh.

"Wow." Her slow, breathy exclamation made him chuckle against her skin.

"Heh. I aim to please." He gave the silky skin of her thigh another kiss and then a firm suck, holding her hips down with his hands for the brief second she squirmed under his assault and then he lifted his head and gave her belly a single tender kiss. He finally sat up and smoothed his thumb over the mark he'd left on her thigh before he pulled her skirt back down and helped her stand. She was a little shaky on her feet and the smile still hadn't left her face.

Logan was uncomfortably hard and he winced as he sat back, immediately adjusting himself in the unforgiving denim. "Christ," he muttered under his breath.

Marie's brows drew together. "You okay?"

"I'll live," he growled in mock ferocity before a wide grin broke over his features. "It ain't anythin' that won't keep 'till ya get home, kid." He met her gaze and stroked himself with the flat of his palm, a promise of things to come later.

Her eyes twinkled. "In that case, can I have my panties back?" She checked her watch. "I'm supposed to meet Jubes in three minutes."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Heh. Nope. Toldya, they're mine." With a smug smile, he patted the pocket he'd tucked them in and then dug out his wallet from the other one. Still smiling, he pulled out several bills and held them out to her. "I'm guessin' you and the firecracker are gonna hit the mall sometime while you're out?" He waited for her nod. "Buy yourself some more then. I'm keepin' these."

Marie giggled. "Yeah? Victoria's Secret or Fredrick's, sugar?"

Logan fished out a few more bills and handed them to her. "Both. Get somethin' nice from that pink place," he paused and cocked his head as he studied her, "somethin' green." His eyes glittered. "You look hot as fuck in green, baby." He reached behind his back and dug her forgotten keys out from the cushions, holding them out to her as his smile became more wicked. "And somethin' black and slutty from that other place." His voice dropped. "Wear that one home."

"Ohhh, sounds like someone wants to play King of the Cage."

"That ain't for you to worry about. You just be a good girl and do what I say, huh?" Hazel eyes crackled green-gold fire at her. Marie could tell he was enjoying the dominant role he was playing with her now just as much as she was. It was a lovely taste of things to come. "You are a good girl, arentcha, baby?" He growled.

"Only as good as you want me to be," she purred back, shivering in anticipation as she tucked the money in her purse.

Logan grinned dangerously. "You just remember to wear the black one home, girl, and leave the rest to me."

Marie laughed lightly and turned to go. "I love it when you get all 'grrr', sugar."

He caught her hand and met her eyes, dropping the Wolverine persona as easily as he'd donned it. "And I love you, kid. With everythin' I got in me."

And so, the fire is once again banked. Roaring flames are reduced to glowing embers, smoldering just under the surface, waiting only for a lover's touch to breathe them back to life.